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Dear Abby: Readers have options for tech-averse

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

Dear Abby: This is in response to “Love My Cheap Phone” (Aug. 28). As a millennial who has worked in retail my whole adult life, I’m tired of the excuse that the older generation can’t or won’t use smartphones.Personal computers have been out for decades, and smartphones have been around more than 16 years. These things are designed to make our lives easier and should be embraced rather than shunned.The only person holding them back is themself, and most of the time smartphones are more intuitive than previously thought. They also all don’t cost $1,000; many basic use smartphones can be bought for under $200, not to mention certain phone companies offer big discounts on people’s first smartphone with a new account. I don’t feel bad for “Love.” I suggest they get with the times, because these devices aren’t going away. — Millennial in OregonDear Millennial: Thank you for writing. After that letter appeared, I was...

Cities crack down on homeless encampments. Advocates say that’s not the answer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tossing tent poles, blankets and a duffel bag into a shopping cart and three wagons, Will Taylor spent a summer morning helping friends tear down what had been their home and that of about a dozen others. It wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t be the last.Contractors from the city of Portland had arrived to break down the stretch of tents and tarps on a side street behind a busy intersection. People had an hour to vacate the encampment, one of more than a dozen cleared that July day, according to city data. Whatever they couldn’t take with them was placed in clear plastic bags, tagged with the date and location of the removal and sent to an 11,000-square-foot (1,020 square meter) warehouse storing thousands like them.“It can get hard,” said Taylor, 32, who has been swept at least three times in the four years he’s been homeless. “It is what it is. … I just let it go.”Angelique Risby, 29, watched as workers in neon-yellow vests shove...

Michigan Democrats poised to test ambitious environmental goals in the industrial Midwest

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is on the verge of implementing one of the nation’s most ambitious clean energy mandates, aiming to be carbon-free by 2040 in what is a pivotal test of the Democrats’ environmental goals in a state with a long-standing manufacturing legacy.Michigan will join four other states in requiring utility providers to transition to 100% carbon-free energy generation by 2040 under legislation that will soon be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer The state has also set a goal for utilities to generate 50% of their energy from renewable sources by 2030, a significant leap from the current 12%.The state-level mandates support the Biden administration’s goals of a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050. The clean energy package, which was approved by Democrats in the Michigan Legislature this month, has been lauded by environmental groups. Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Co...

Tensions are bubbling up at thirsty Arizona alfalfa farms as foreign firms exploit unregulated water

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

WENDEN, Ariz. (AP) — A blanket of bright green alfalfa spreads across western Arizona’s McMullen Valley, ringed by rolling mountains and warmed by the hot desert sun. Matthew Hancock’s family has used groundwater to grow forage crops here for more than six decades. They’re long accustomed to caprices of Mother Nature that can spoil an entire alfalfa cutting with a downpour or generate an especially big yield with a string of blistering days.But concerns about future water supplies from the valley’s ancient aquifers, which hold groundwater supplies, are bubbling up in Wenden, a town of around 700 people where the Hancock family farms. Some neighbors complain their backyard wells have dried up since the Emirati agribusiness Al Dahra began farming alfalfa here on about 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) several years ago. It is unknown how much water the Al Dahra operation uses, but Hancock estimates it needs 15,000 to 16,000 acre feet a year based on what his own alf...

Germany is having a budget crisis. With the economy struggling, it’s not the best time

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — With its economy struggling, Germany now is wrestling to find a way out of a budget crisis after a court struck down billions in funding for clean energy projects and help for companies and consumers facing high utility bills because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to lay out how he and his quarrelsome governing coalition aim to fix things in a speech to parliament Tuesday. The government must hastily find cuts in the almost-finished spending plan for next year, analysts say, which could further slow what is already the world’s worst-performing major economy. A long-term solution, however, could take years, possibly until after the next national elections scheduled for 2025. That’s because the strict legal limits on borrowing cited in the Nov. 15 court decision are enshrined in the country’s constitution, and a two-thirds majority in parliament is required to soften them.Economists say spending cuts will only ...

Alex Murdaugh, already convicted of murder, will be sentenced for stealing from 18 clients

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

For years, South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh looked his anguished clients in the eyes and promised to help them with their medical bills, their suffering or simply to survive. Then he stole most, if not all, of what he won for many of them.On Tuesday, those folks get to look right back at Murdaugh, in a prison jumpsuit, and tell him whatever they want as the disgraced lawyer, also convicted of murder, is sentenced for a decade worth of thefts from clients and his law firm.The courtroom drama will mark yet another step in the fall of a powerful and respected attorney whose family name dominated the legal scene in a small Hampton County for generations, and whose alleged crimes have been a perennial favorite of podcasts, books and online discussions. State prosecutors and Murdaugh’s lawyers negotiated a 27-year prison sentence for the man who is already serving a life term without parole after a jury found him guilty of killing his wife, Maggie, with a rifle, and younger son...

‘Past Lives,’ Lily Gladstone win at Gotham Awards, while Robert De Niro says his speech was edited

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Celine Song’s wistful romance “Past Lives” earned top honors at the Gotham Awards on Monday evening at an award-season kickoff where the night’s biggest drama came in a political speech by Robert De Niro that the actor claimed had been edited without his permission. “Past Lives,” a breakout at the Sundance Film Festival in January and an arthouse hit in June for A24, may be poised to be an Oscar sleeper this year after winning best feature film at the Gothams. Affection is strong for Song’s directorial debut, starring Greta Lee as a woman born in Seoul who, after marrying an American (John Magaro), reconnects with a childhood friend from South Korea (Teo Yoo).“This is the first film I’ve ever made and a very personal film about an extraordinary feeling I had in an ordinary bar in the East Village, not too many blocks away from here,” said Song, accepting the award. “As this film has been shared with the world, it has taught me — and taught us — that...

Investigation underway after shooting reports on Northwestern University Chicago campus

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

CHICAGO — Authorities responded after reports of shots fired on Northwestern's Chicago campus on Monday evening. In a message shared on Northwestern University's website at 9:07 p.m., the university confirmed that Chicago and Northwestern police were responding to reports of shots fired outside of Wieboldt Hall near East Chicago Avenue and North Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville.In an update shared at 9:32 p.m., the university provided an "all clear" and confirmed that the campus has been secured. In the update, university officials said "assailants are in custody," however Chicago police say no arrests were made. Man dead, child hurt after shooting, crash on SW Side Chicago police say a witness later told officers that a large fight involving several people broke out in the street. The witness told police that they had seen a woman pull out a handgun and fire a single shot and that is when the crowd fled the scene.Officers say no injuries were reported and an investiga...

St. Cloud State University president will step aside next summer

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Robbyn Wacker, the president of St. Cloud State University since 2018, will leave the institution when her contract is completed in June.“When I arrived, the task that I had in front of me was pretty clear: Improve the enrollment, re-engage with alumni and donors, and add a little bit of Husky pride to the place,” Wacker said Monday.Enrollment at St. Cloud State ticked upward this year for the first time since 2015. Fall 2023 enrollment was 10,134.A SCSU collaboration with a for-profit online instruction company called Academic Partnerships has generated controversy on campus: The Save St. Cloud State group and some faculty believe it will replace faculty members.Robbyn Wacker was named president of St. Cloud State University on May 16, 2018. (Courtesy of Minnesota State)Wacker, 66, is SCSU’s 24th president and its first female permanent president. She also is the first openly LGBT president in the university’s 154 years. She took over in 2018 for Ashish Vai...

Cash-strapped Rochester district to close 3 schools, restructure attendance options

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:29:05 GMT

ROCHESTER, Minn. — In the wake of mounting financial pressures, Rochester Public Schools has announced its intent to close multiple schools in addition to a slew of other changes as part of a larger overhaul of its attendance options.RPS announced the intent Monday morning in a press release. The district’s school board is set to discuss the situation further on Tuesday.“The Attendance Options Redesign proposal is the result of two years of planning and analysis,” Superintendent Kent Pekel said in Monday’s statement. “While the narrow failure of the technology referendum that Rochester Public Schools placed on the ballot on November 7, 2023, increases the urgency of finding savings in the school district’s transportation budget and in every other area of the district’s work, this proposal is not a kneejerk reaction to the defeat of the referendum earlier this month.”RPS intends to close both Pinewood and Riverside elementary schools, as well as Mighty Oaks Early Learning...